Anesthesiology

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Welcome to the Department of Anesthesiology

 
The Department of Anesthesiology at Boston Medical Center strives to offer exceptional care without exception to patients undergoing surgery and chronic pain-related procedures and requiring critical care. Boston Medical Center performs over 20,000 cases per year of all types, including pediatric and obstetrical procedures and complex minimally invasive robotically assisted cardiac and urological operations. BMC is a nationally recognized Level One trauma center.

The Department of Anesthesiology is outstanding with a number of recent achievements, including:

• The residency program recently received a five-year cycle ACGME accreditation status and 100% of its residents passed the written American Board of Anesthesiology examination on the first attempt.  The number of residency positions has steadily increased every two years.
  
  
• The Department, under the leadership of Dr. Lewis, won the 2008 National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems Safety Net Award in the category of patient safety for surgical site infections improvement project (SSI).
  
  
• The Department published a variety of scholarly publications in the past academic year. Several members of the faculty contributed chapters in a textbook soon to be published. An article on the history of inhalation anesthesia, in which we discuss Boston University’s Doris Appel’s Hall of Medicine, was published in Anesthesiology, the leading journal in our specialty. In addition, we have developed several procedural videos published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Our most recent New England Journal of Medicine publication on ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein cannulation topped the list of most emailed articles.
  
  
• We have introduced the Computerized Anesthesia Record (Picis Anesthesia Manager) to Boston Medical Center and now anesthesia record keeping is fully computerized in all operating rooms.
  
  
• Our staff has been visiting faculty at various institutions across the country and abroad, including Yale University, Harvard University and University of Miami. We have lectured in Spain, South Africa, Colombia and other Latin American countries. 
  
  
• This year we hosted our 6th Annual Ellison Pierce Symposium, a very successful continuing medical education course on operating room management.
  
  
• Dr. Ruben Azocar became an Oral Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology and recently obtained a grant to develop an educational curriculum in the field of geriatrics.
  
  
• Our residency program continues to excel. Recent graduates were accepted to competitive fellowships or received attractive job offers from prestigious practices.
  The Department of Anesthesiology remains a strong provider of clinical care as well as a superb educational resource for both medical students and residents.